Tax Hikes Tied To How Cities Prepare For Future

As condominiums, shopping centers and offices fill every scrap of vacant land in western Broward County, property owners can expect their taxes to go up.

The cost of running city governments and providing city services -- particularly employee salaries and benefits -- means an inevitable, ever- increasing demand for money, city officials say.

How high will taxes rise? That may well depend upon how well city administrators prepare for the future.

North Lauderdale ``is going to be looking at another tax increase two or three years down the road, and then we will stabilize,`` predicted City Manager Eric Soroka.

The cities of North Lauderdale, Lauderdale Lakes, Lauderhill and Margate all are approaching build-out. They have little vacant land left for development.

North Lauderdale is using a six-year plan to keep tabs on taxing and spending, Soroka said. The city`s tax rate hasn`t changed in five years.

Tax rates also have been stable in Lauderdale Lakes and should continue to be, according to City Administrator Clay Dillman.

Lauderdale Lakes has not had a substantial tax rate increase since 1976. During the past decade, Lauderdale Lakes has socked away in the bank about $6 million in surplus money. The entire city budget is $7 million.

City officials have said they intend to spend the money on renovating roads, sewers and drainage systems.

Lauderdale Lakes has been protected from a tax increase over the past few years by a healthy amount of commercial development, Dillman said. Of the land yet to be developed in Lauderdale Lakes, most will be used for businesses, he said.

``We`ve had a lot of commercial development lately,`` Dillman said, noting a number of new shopping centers have sprouted up along busy State Road 7.

Commercial development protects cities from tax increases because businesses require fewer city services, as compared to residences, Dillman said. Merchants normally don`t have to worry about such things as city recreation programs.

``Particularly, it`s the residential, single-family building that throws the (burden) on,`` he said.

As residences and shopping centers are finished, however, money from construction permits, which help cities balance their budgets, take a nose- dive, officials say.

Lauderhill council members don`t plan a tax increase this year.

But they were warned by Mayor Ilene Lieberman that, without a tax increase in the future, city government will have to be streamlined.

Money from building permits, inspections and occupational licenses in Lauderhill was $1.1 million in the 1986-87 budget year. That figure is expected to be $870,000 this budget year. It could drop as low as $750,000 next budget year, records show.

Compare those numbers with Coconut Creek -- a city about one-fourth the size of Lauderhill and with only about three-fourths the population.

Building permits and inspections in Coconut Creek also generated $1.1 million during 1986-87. Unlike Lauderhill, however, that amount has leaped to about $1.5 million in 1987-88 and is expected to be up at least another $1.4 million next budget year.

Faced with a decline in revenue from new construction, Lieberman had hoped to reorganize city departments in Laudehill, shifting the emphasis toward redevelopment of the 29-year-old city. Council members rejected her proposals, but indicated they would review them again next year.

Margate officials, meanwhile, seem to be confronting some of the problems associated with approaching buildout.

City officials say the tax rate must increase 37 percent next year, mostly to pay the cost of employee salaries that were locked into contracts negotiated last year with unions.

The problems that Lauderhill and Margate face today, Coconut Creek does not expect to confront until the 21st century.

Only about 30 percent of the land in Coconut Creek has been built on. Yet like all other cities the issue will be redevelopment one day, City Manager Dennis Mele said.

The cost to taxpayers will vary, depending how desperate a city wants an old building torn down to make way for a new one, he said.

Land in prime locations likely will cost few tax dollars, he predicted.

``That kind of development pays for itself,`` because the builder would be eager to use the land and community groups would demand that redevelopment not cost the city money, he said.